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Family Food Matters: 3 healthy dinner recipes from Mark Bittman

Food and diet have become integral in food policy discussions, as they relate to issues as wide-ranging as global warming, other environmental issues and childhood obesity. Collectively our choices can stand up to the legislators, lobbyists and special interest groups that continue to shape the way our food is raised, produced, packaged, shipped and marketed. I’ve come to call this “personal food policy.”

If you swap the basic proportions in your diet – increasing unprocessed fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole grains – you’ll wind up losing weight and improving your overall health, while also improving more difficult-to-measure situations like global warming, the environment in general and animal welfare.

For me, it’s been astonishingly easy to remain on a diet that relies on far fewer animal products and processed foods than the typically “American” one. And this has been true even though I’m a journalist and author making his living from cooking, eating, and writing about the same. At no time has my new way of eating made my job – or my life – more difficult. If anything it’s easier, since I pay better attention to what goes into my mouth and fully appreciate all sorts of food, now more than ever.

Firm plums are perfect here, but chicken tastes good with almost any fruit, so if plums aren’t available, try peaches, apples, pears, berries or even tropical fruit. You can vary the nuts too (check out the variation).

Chicken, cauliflower and chickpeas all take well to strong seasonings, and they taste great together. In this one-pan Indian-tinged stir-fry, two other Cs – curry and coconut milk – round out the dish into a light stew that’s perfect to serve with brown basmati rice.

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Content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical or health, safety, legal or financial advice. Click here for additional information.